A Message from Finland
From:
Hannu Björkbacka
Hannu emailed me in response to the request for people interested
in a
2nd edition of Paul's ACT book.
I emailed back, mentioning Aila, Pohjolan tytär (1951)
the film directed by Jack Witikka, that Michael Powell produced in Finland.
Hannu replied saying:
~( ;^) ~ Hi, Steve!
I have browsed your site from time to time, but because I'm reading the
autobiographies and seeing and collecting all the available P & P films on
DVD (great to have 49th parallel out, now how about One of our aircraft...
on DVD?), I've yet to discover all the wonderful info on your site.
I saw AMOLAD as a child - but it went 20 years before I noticed, reading
Sight and Sound, whose film it was! I'm a self-taught enthusiast, and this
month completed giving a course on film history using only the best DVD
sources as film examples, and of course I tried to include as much P & P
"propaganda" as possible into the lectures to influence my young audience!
It's nice to know that the Finnish angle to Powell is so widely known.
However, did you know, that the knife that hits the floor in the Red Shoes
ballet is a Finnish knife from Lapland? The knife was given to Powell as a
present from Finnish director Jack Witikka, who was also present at the
opening night in London.
Mr. Witikka (who died this year) was interviewed in a two hour radio
programme (which I have on tape) by the well-known Finnish film expert Peter
von Bagh two weeks after Mr. Powell had died. They talked about Powell and
the movies and especially the Finnish connection with Jack Witikka. After
listening the programme and learning about the last film project that was on
Mr. Powell's mind (filming Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher in Finland,
at the Hvitträsk manor built by Eliel Saarinen and other Finnish architects
1901-1903 - where Akseli Gallen-Kallela and Maksim Gorky used to stay) and
his love of Dylan Thomas, I sent Mr. Witikka a tape of John Cale's Dylan
Thomas songs (Words for the Dying). After that we were in contact by
letters and telephone during his last years. Witikka made a number of
quality films, but mostly he is rememberd as a theatre director, bringing
the modern plays of Becket and others first time to the Finnish stage.
My other "contact" to Powell - who visited The Midnight Sun Film Festival in
Sodankylä once with Mrs. Schoonmaker-Powell - was sending a telegram to
Thelma after learning about Powell's death while reading the first part of
the autobiography. Mrs. Schoonmaker-Powell kindly sent me an invitation to
St. James's Church for the service in memory of Michael Powell.
Unfortunately I did not know as a Finn what that kind of a service actually
meant, so I only sent a "thank you" note. Only after Thelma sent me
clippings of the event it dawned me what a fool I was blaming my work
schedule and not taking a trip to London "in memory of Michael Powell"!
http://www.nba.fi/MUSEUMS/HVITTR
from this link you can find a nice picture of Hvitträsk.
All the best, and thank you for you continuing work on P & P.
Sincerely,
Hannu
(Hannu Bjürkbacka, Kokkola, Finland)
